About 10 years ago my washer broke. I took the top off and spent a good hour with a multimeter trying to figure out what was wrong - in the end I gave up.I rang an engineer, he came out, switched it on and announced "yeah mate, I know what that is - it'll cost you £50".I agreed to this (relieved it didn't cost more), he took the top off, took a filter out from the vacuum switch, rinsed it under that tap and put it back. 10 minutes and job done...On the one hand I felt well ripped off - but then on the other I couldn't fix it and I'd already accepted it was worth £50 to have it fixed.

Like most things in this country, we want top dollar for our time but don't think anyone else's is worth paying for.

I notice that the price of Chinese goods is going up, soon we're going to run out of 3rd world countries to make our goods cheap, perhaps when it happens we'll begin to understand the value of things.

I just paid a bloke £15 to go up a ladder and take down the sky dish and bracket. He wanted £35. A fiver seems very reasonable to get get somebody to do a job that you can't do yourself.

Just took a look at those other forums. It seems to me that the OP is a dealer and has put this post on the forum for ulterior motives, and has other posts which are quite abusive. Can I suggest that this thread be shut down/deleted. I'd hate to see it degenerate into something unbecoming of our cosy forum.

I just paid a bloke £15 to go up a ladder and take down the sky dish and bracket. He wanted £35. A fiver seems very reasonable to get get somebody to do a job that you can't do yourself.

Just took a look at those other forums. It seems to me that the OP is a dealer and has put this post on the forum for ulterior motives, and has other posts which are quite abusive. Can I suggest that this thread be shut down/deleted. I'd hate to see it degenerate into something unbecoming of our cosy forum.

On the other hand coming from Warrington, I'd like to know who he is then I can better arrange my future purchases.

There is no reason to believe that the OP as not charged £5 for the job in question or that he is not annoyed by it, even if most might judge that annoyance unreasonable when compared to examples of charges made for other tasks given above. I've seen no evidence of him being a dealer with ulterior motives - if you have such evidence then please supply it to the mods and we will act, otherwise might I ask that unfounded allegations aren't made please?

But rest assured, an eye will be kept on the thread in case it should deteriorate.

thirdcrank wrote:I can't think of any other trade where people expect work to be done as "good will" when there isn't an existing long-term customer relationship.

I have the opposite problem. My LBS, which I frequent about four times a year and never for anything big, keep on doing things for free, which I'd feel better about paying for. In the most recent case I had to take my forks & mech in to have the thread tapped and the mech dismantled. Would he hear of me paying him, of course not! Previously they cut a steerer tube to size and transferred the crown race, also for free.

Anyway, I think it's important that people get over the idea that how long something takes completely defines its worth. A good way to think about it is, suppose you drop the broken part (or whatever) in a black box and it came out fixed. How much would it be worth to you? I'd pay a lot more than £5 to shift a stuck bolt in some circumstances!

I know of some bike shops who charge to use their track pump, not because they actually think they should be earning money off it but because the regular flow of people who need it fetching, use it, and then leave it lying all cause enough hassle that they want to discourage it (and at the same time if you were stuck miles from home and didn't have any change, I'm sure they'd be OK). So although some may object to the idea that they are getting hundreds of 50p coins for the use of a £30 track pump they'd have in the workshop anyway, they'd have totally the wrong end of the stick.

I bet if you had bought something else from the shop then the guy would have probably done it for free.

If that's all you went in for - he would have to charge you - what would you have put as a reasonable charge in this case? I think £5 is fine to be honest. They're not a charity!

I have two bike shops I visit - one really tiny LBS who has a limited range but when it comes to technical stuff he is the best. I managed to get a shraeder to presta rim hole spacer from him - we were talking about it once in the past and he said 'I've seen those - you're not the first person to mention them'. A couple of weeks later I popped in for some inner tubes and bits, and he goes 'I've got a spacer for you' which was just fab. I hadn't ordered it, but he bought some into stock anyway and remembered I needed one! If I need anything specific or technical he's always got it and always knows what I need. My Mountain Bike I converted into a hybrid is 100% better thanks to his time and advice (and parts I bought from him!).

For bigger stuff like new tights / jerseys and tyres, there is a massive bike shop nearby that if I don't want to order online from Wiggle, I can go to to browse. But they tend to be very quick on service and I don't get what feels like the personal service I get with the little LBS. I did get a new helmet from there the other day however, and they were very helpful, in between phone calls

Cody alledges that the shop charged £5 for a minor job. Most of us (if not all) have said that this is perfectly reasonable behaviour for a bike shop. Non of us feel that this denegrates this dealer IN PARTICULAR. If another dealer had posted this it would be stupid and backfire on them as it could be held as a reason (especially for poor people like me) to avoid ALL dealers.

I think it is a subject which could do with an airing, preferably without naming any particular company.

A complaint that I am more likely to have is where you take the work to a dealer because it requires a level of skill above a mere DIY monkey like myself.So you take it to the expert who them attacks it like a teenager and breaks it, then charges you top rates for the priveledge!!

Taking a rounded nut off is a job for a DIY monkey like myself, I would love to do it for just a couple of quid. A proper cycle shop should offer a better service and charge an appropriate rate.

Or maybee, just maybee, the mechanic in question was experienced enough to know how much effort he could safely put on the nut WITHOUT shearing the shaft. If the nut hadnt come off then he would have changed to a safer method of removing it. Still within the £5 bill. If you ever find that sort of mechanic then stick to them. Personally I gave up on paying for a proffesional and getting a lesser monkey than myself.